discover
houses in which no portico extended its friendly shelter, and where even
the doors seemed divested of the narrow ledge wherewith they are, in
more civilized quarters, ordinarily crowned.

"I shall certainly have the rheumatism all this winter," said Mr. Brown,
hurrying onward as fast as he was able. Just then, glancing desperately
down a narrow lane, which crossed his path, he perceived the scaffolding
of a house in which repair or alteration had been at work. A ray of hope
flashed across him; he redoubled his speed, and, entering the welcome
haven, found himself entirely protected from the storm. The extent of
the scaffolding was, indeed, rather considerable; and though the extreme
narrowness of the lane and the increasing gloom of the night left Mr.
Brown in almost total darkness, so that he could not perceive the exact
peculiarities of his situation, yet he was perfectly satisfied with
the shelter he had obtained; and after shaking the rain from his hat,
squeezing his coat sleeves and lappets, satisfying himself that it was
only about the shoulders that he was thoroughly wetted, and thrusting
two pocket-handkerchiefs between his shirt and his skin, as preventives
to the dreaded rheumatism, Mr. Brown leaned luxuriously back against
the wall in the farthest corner of his retreat, and busied himself with
endeavouring to restore his insulted umbrella to its original utility of
shape.

Our wanderer had been about three minutes in this situation; when he
heard the voices of two men, who were hastening along the lane.

"But do stop," said one; and these were the first words distinctly
audible to the ear of Mr. Brown, "do stop, the rain can't last much
longer, and we have a long way yet to go."

"No, no," said the other, in a voice more imperious than the first,
which was evidently plebeian and somewhat foreign in its tone, "no, we
have no time. What signify the inclemencies of weather to men feeding
upon an inward and burning thought, and made, by the workings of the
mind, almost callous to the contingencies of the frame?"

"Nay, my very good friend," said the first speaker, with positive though
not disrespectful earnestness, "that may be all very fine for you, who
have a constitution like a horse; but I am quite a--what call you it--an
invalid, eh? and have a devilish cough ever since I have been in this
d--d country; beg your pardon, no offence to it; so I shall just step
under cover of this scaffolding for